Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss decades old computer software in the Brexit agreement, a Twitter defamation lawsuit, GoDaddy apologizing over a security test sent to their employees, a law punishing streamers, a KFC PC, and more.

Our guest this hour:

Thuc Vu, CEO and Co-Founder - Ohmni Labs

Ray in Niagara Falls, NY listens online and asked: "I've always heard there's a machine you can put on your cable to eliminate commercials. It's getting too much. One string had eight commercials and it's the same commercial over and over again. There's got to be a way to eliminate them I hope."

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2021/01-01-2021/01-01-2021-H1S1.mp3

Ray, youre probably thinking of DVRs that allow you to skip commercials on recorded shows. Those exist, but the best bet there would be to talk to your cable company to see what they offer, if anything. There are third party DVRs from big companies like Tivo that offer the feature, but it will typically require buying an expensive device and committing to a monthly payment. Your cable company may offer you a better deal.

What theyll call that feature depends on your cable company, for example Comcast calls it Smart Resume, Dish calls it Autohop, TiVo devices call it SkipMode.

There are no devices that will let you skip commercials on live broadcasts since they obviously wont be able to skip into the future, but at least theres hope for your pre-recorded content.

This doesnt really apply to you since its about over-the-air TV rather than cable, but Tablo started offering this service in early 2020 for $2 a month for cord cutters.

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Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss the best mobile internet coverage in the US, devices that will no longer be supported by T-Mobile, and more.

Our guest this hour:

Steven Scheer, President - Brondell

Nick in Windsor, Ontario listens on AM800 CKLW The Information Station and asked: "My question has to do with streaming video with cameras over Wi-Fi. I've had less than good results with choppy video, even when set to standard definition. This happens when the cameras is right next to the router, so signal is not an issue. It's just horrible streaming. My router is a Linksys N900, so it's like 450/450. Do I need to upgrade my router?"

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2021/01-01-2021/01-01-2021-H2S1.mp3

Nick, yes you should probably look into upgrading your router. The N900 series was pitched in a weird way from the start, making it sound like a gigabit router when it never really was, but it was a supposedly fast router for a cheap price.

Having said that, it should be easy to find out if your problem is the router or the cameras. Just run a speed test on your computer, or try to stream a show if you have a smart TV and see what happens.

If the router is struggling, itll probably struggle for all streaming media.

You did mention multiple cameras, so the problem is still most likely the router.

Just so you know, there is a world of difference between a $20 router and a $150 router. Usually if youre doing the bare minimum anything will do, but once you get into more data intensive applications like video streaming the cheaper devices tend to get overwhelmed pretty quickly and either slow way down or even freeze up and need to be constantly restarted.

If having access to the cameras is important to you, you may want to consider a more expensive router just for the reliability.

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Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss millions of vinyl albums being sold, Musk's attempt to sell Tesla to Apple, Apple M1 chips and display issues, using the roof of your mouth as a personal identifier, new drone rules from the FAA, Dyson and Google Assistant, Panasonic's delivery robot, and more.

Our guest this hour:

Liam McCallum, CPO & Co-Founder - Loop Media

Laura in Shreveport, Louisiana listens on 710 KEEL and is calling via the App and asked: "My husband recently retired and we have taken to our motor home to explore the country. I homeschool our youngest child and we use the Internet for research and basically as a library. We're wondering what our best and least expensive option is for reliable Internet. Most of the time when we camp, it's not at a campground that has Wi-Fi. Typically we camp in the wilderness on public land where no Wi-Fi is available. What do you think our best option might be?"

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2021/01-01-2021/01-01-2021-H3S1.mp3

Laura, your options wont be too great, especially if you're relying on streaming media and not just digital books.

Normally we would recommend a WiFi antenna that would help you pick up the campsites WiFi but since thats not an option all you really have left are cell signal solutions.

That means that you can share your phones hotspot signal or you can get a standalone hotspot.

Either option will generally work as long as theres a signal in the area and as long as that signal is strong enough to be used reliably.

Since you mentioned camping on public land thats not a given. Whenever possible, try to stay closer to highways. The noise will be a pain but you will have a signal.

One thing that may help get you around the signal issues is getting a separate hotspot from a different provider than your main cell phone (so that you have two options when it comes to deciding which to use), and getting a signal booster.

There are some like the WeBoost X RV or the SureCall Fusion2Go RV that are made for campers, will typically take power from a 12v outlet, and will improve your signal.

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Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Google's growing legal perils, Uber Eats' troubles in Switzerland, the new Covid strain, Apple car rumors, CarPlay and Waze, Google's and news legislation, the 2020 Christmas, and more.

Our guest this hour:

Joe Braidwood, COO and Co-Founder, Scener

Frank in Raleigh, North Carolina listens on WPTF and asked: "I would like to know if there is a tutorial that I can download into my phone on how to learn Mac Air."

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2020/12-25-2020/12-25-2020-H1S5.mp3

Frank, yes there is. Apple puts out guides for all of the products which can be accessed on their site or downloaded to your devices.

You can find the guide for the MacBook Air here.

If you dont mind not having the tutorial saved to your phone, there are plenty of them online. In particular, if you find a feature that youre having trouble with, YouTube will probably have a walkthrough by some user that may help you out.

Keep in mind that a MacBook Air is a pretty versatile little computer, so you wont find a single guide that will teach you everything it can do.

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Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Facebook's physical security keys, techno-stress and personality types, Vimeo's IPO, Apple closing its California stores, delivery scams, Alexa's AI improvements, and more.

Our guest this hour:

Dan Diliberti , Head of Mobility Product Management and Market Strategy - Panasonic

John in Lansing, Michigan listens on AM800 CKLW and asked: "I have a Chromebook and a Lenovo laptop with Windows 10. I've heard that if you wanna do banking from home, you should get a Chromebook and use it for nothing else. Now, I've seen a product for about $30, called Xtra-PC and it uses Linux and it plugs into the port of your laptop. I'm wondering if I did that, and used it only for my bank, would I be safe from malware or anything else that could be on the device I'm plugging the Xtra-PC on?"

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2020/12-25-2020/12-25-2020-H2S1.mp3

John, Xtra-PC seems to just be a Linux live USB.

That means its just a bootable version of Linux that you can run by plugging it into a USB port and having it boot and read from its own storage.

In terms of it being safe from malware, it probably would be relatively safe due to the very, very small user base making it unappealing to most of the people who would target a system. Having said that, 99% of attacks these days dont target computers, they target you.

The weak point that most attackers try to exploit is your potential gullibility if they manage to send you to a page that looks like a login or password reset or recovery page and make you type in your current credentials. That can happen under any system. Browser vulnerabilities can make it onto Linux too, and unlike Chromebooks Linux machines wont necessarily be set up to update in the background automatically.

What we can say about Xtra-PC is that its makers market it with some pretty inflated claims mostly centered around how it will speed up your PC significantly. All of it reads as material that is itself meant to target less technical people, and a lot of is probably very untrue.

If youre interested in trying a live USB Linux distribution, you can find plenty of free ones online that you can install into any USB flash drive you may already have.

In terms of banking itself, if you want a safe option that you already own, you may be better served by a phone. Smartphones mostly have some sort of biometric recognition system, youd likely use an app which is harder to spoof than a website, and a non-rooted, non-jailbroken phone will sandbox apps which makes them better isolated from malware.

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Our guest this hour:

Gideon Feldstein, Global Head of Insights and Strategy - Dolby

Nick in Windsor, Ontario listens on AM800 CKLW and is calling via the App and asked: "I've just started adding some smart devices, like light bulbs, doorbells and cameras. I'm the only one in the house. Will I need to get a new router? I still use an Android box which goes over the Wifi. I'm wondering if all that contention will require a faster router. My router is maybe six years old."

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2020/12-25-2020/12-25-2020-H3S1.mp3

Nick, no you shouldnt need a new router just because you added a few extra devices unless your original router was very cheap and underpowered.

Your new devices are typically relatively dormant most of the time and dont generate a lot of traffic or require a lot of bandwidth.

Routers are not all equal, so the fact that it was made six years ago doesnt tell us too much, for example, there were already some gigabit WiFi routers out in the market six years ago, and a router that can handle a gigabit connection should be able to handle a few devices.

In theory a home router should be able to handle in the neighborhood of 250 devices, but WiFi is a fairly heavy protocol, so people who truly like home automation and truly dislike getting off the couch sometimes prefer lighter weight wireless protocols that just rely on home automation.

Still, just you and a bunch of home devices are probably not going to be making your router sweat too much if its a decent one. Change it if it gives you trouble, but it probably wont.

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Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Google's outages, Google trends for the year, FTC looking into the data privacy policies of social media giants, Honda software recalls, smart holiday decorations, a flamethowing drone, Twitter shutting down Periscope, and more.

Our guest this hour:

Haol Yao, Product Manager, Consumer Inkjet at Epson America

Steve in Lake Villa, Illinois listens to the podcast and is calling via the App and asked: "I have a friend whose mother does not have cable or Wi-Fi, but she does have a smart TV. He wants to be able to stream his YouTube videos from his phone to the TV. Can he do this without Wi-Fi in the house, and the smart TV obviously not connected to Wi-Fi?"

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2020/12-18-2020/12-18-2020-H1S1.mp3

Steve, we cant tell you for sure without more information but its almost certainly a no.

Depending on the phone your friend is using, it may be possible to connect it using a cable between the phone and the TVs HDMI port, but the smart functions of smart TVs typically assume and require WiFi.

Most smart TVs dont even feature any out of the box mirroring for phones, so thats already a potential hurdle, but even the ones that do normally require WiFi.

It may be possible to get around that using the phones own hotspot (this also depends on the specific phone), but he will still have to deal with mirroring not necessarily being a feature of the smart TV itself.

Since most smart TVs have access to a YouTube app the most viable solution may be to connect the TV to the phones hotspot and rather than mirroring the video just allow the TV to play it natively through its own app.

Rich in Canada and asked: "Which is a better laptop, a 17 inch LENOVO or a17 inch dell?"

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2020/12-18-2020/12-18-2020-H1S5.mp3

Rich, we cant tell from just the screen size, but in terms of reliability ratings Dell is mostly beating Lenovo this year.

If you had asked us last year, Lenovo wouldve mostly been beating Dell in the rankings so take that with a grain of salt.

Also, keep in mind that 17-inch laptop just refers to the size of the screen, but any modern 17-inch laptop will be a better laptop than a 2006 17-inch laptop, and any $2000 17-inch laptop will outperform a $700 17-inch laptop.

If youre looking at specific models either may come out on top, reliability ratings usually only look at the brands issues across the board.

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Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss vaccine distribution, YouTube creator being able to stream in HDR, Reddit acquiring DubSmash, AT&T selling Crunchy Roll, a worldwide app usage report and TikTok, and more.

Our guest this hour:

Sanjay Parikh, VP of Professional Services - CRITICALSTART

Sandra in Cleveland, Ohio listens on AM800 CKLW and asked: "I am interested in buying an iPad for home use - for check e-mail, watch programs through YouTube or other sites. What is the best iPad? What would you recommend for an iPad for me to get? Where is the best place to buy the best consumer electronic products like iPads, computers and stuff like that?"

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2020/12-18-2020/12-18-2020-H2S4.mp3

Sandra, if youre asking about strictly iPads, any of them will do.

Theres no iPad that wont let you watch YouTube or other streaming videos, check email or go on websites. What we can give you instead is tips on which not to get.

You probably dont need any of the more powerful Pro models. Those cost more money but have more processing power. The Pro line is marketed towards professionals in fields in which they need a machine that will allow some more complex work in areas like design but that dont need the full power of a bulkier laptop. They are surprisingly able tablets, but theyre not cheap and theres not much point in spending the extra money to just apply the tablet to the tasks you described.

Speaking of money, there are lots of Android tablets out there that can do what youre looking for, and some cost less than iPads. Like with everything else, you do get what you pay for, dont expect a $50 Amazon Fire tablet to perform the way a $500 Pixel Slate or a or a $650 Galaxy Tab,

but Android tablets would probably cover your needs to and that opens you up to more options, if youre interested in them.

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Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Flash's end of life finally approaching, Apple Music and TV apps being available on Google products, Ikea no longer printing a catalog, Amazon catalogs, Disney releasing more titles in theaters and Disney+, an Apple cellular modem, QR codes and the pandemic, and more.

Our guest this hour:

Jan McInnis, Comedian, Comedy Writer & Keynote Speaker - The Work Lady

Ray in Niagara Falls, New York listens online and asked: "I'm having problems with my iPhone X. I'm losing contacts in my phonebook and also if somebody calls me, the call goes right to voicemail unless the person is in my favorites list. Hope you can help me with that."

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2020/12-18-2020/12-18-2020-H3S1.mp3

Ray, your second question has an easy answer, your first one not so much.

For your second question, we suspect you must be using the Do Not Disturb functionality. Apple built exceptions into their DND functionality. One of them, and the most relevant one in this case is Allow Calls From Favorites.

There are two easy ways to get around one, the first one is to just turn off Do Not Disturb, you can do that by pulling down from the top right corner to activate Control Center. From there just tap on the half moon button and youll be all set.

If you want to be able to continue to use DND but still allow calls (for example, if you just dont want to be notified of apps trying to get your attention). You can go into the settings and open Do Not Disturb.

From that pane you should be able to turn it off and on, check to see if you have scheduled DND hours, and set who is exempt and can still call you.

Your first question is tougher, there is no reason for your contacts to disappear. Something must be misbehaving somewhere and that something must have access to your contacts.

To try to figure out what app could be causing that behavior, you can go into Settings, then Privacy, and finally Contacts. That will show you which apps youve allowed to access your contacts. Any that dont have to access them should probably lose the privilege since, why allow it? But most importantly, one of those is the likely culprit if your contacts are disappearing.

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Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Chuck Yager passing away, a Honda "ropot", and more.

Our guest this hour:

Matt Marberry, of SantaClausCalls.com

L.C. in Atlanta, Georgia listens on AM920 The Answer and asked: "Wanted to ask about the new Apple processor compared to the Intel processor and - if we're purchasing a new MacBook - whether we should be looking toward moving to the new Apple processor or sticking with the Intel processor"

https://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2020/12-11-2020/12-11-2020-H1S1.mp3

L.C. if you already have a MacBook, theres no rush to move. The majority of Apple computers still run Intel processors and they will be supported for a long while.

If youre buying now, then yes, go for Apples processor over any stock of machines with Intel processors still floating around. Youll get better battery life, a chip made for what Apple has in mind for the future, better native support for mobile apps on desktop, and youre guaranteed support for a long while.

Keep in mind that Macbooks are premium computers and like most other premium computers they last a long time. You might as well futureproof as much as you can in terms of ensuring compatibility with new features and later iterations of the operating system.

If youre a more technical user, read up on the software you use. Were not aware of many programs not working, but some involved one like Docker require workarounds right now.

Docker is a special case since its virtualization software and it will be patched to support the new chips, but its probably a good idea to check whatever software you rely on, especially if its more closely tied into the hardware like virtualization software is, so youre not dead in the water for a few weeks or stuck putting in place a work around while everything gets updated.

Having said that, since that hasnt been a very widespread issue, yes, go for the new technology over the old one if youre buying now. If youre on an Intel MacBook now theres no rush to move to Apples M1 chip, your computer will continue to work just fine.

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